KLEM News PM Update May 10, 2011

The Le Mars Historic Preservation Commission will use a Certified Local Government Grant to survey the downtown commercial district. The results of the study of the downtown will be used in a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for the National Register designation.

Historic Preservation Commission member Mary Reynolds is the Main Street Manager for the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce. Reynolds will serve as the local project director. She'll coordinate and oversee the grant process with the State Historical Society.

Preservation Solutions of Wamego, Kansas has been selected to conduct the downtown survey and prepare the National Register nomination for Le Mars.

Details will be explained at three public meetings. The first meeting is Wednesday, May 18th at noon in the City Council Chambers. The purpose of the meeting next week is to acquaint building owners, Main Street Committee members, Plymouth County Historical Museum staff and volunteers with the grant and the study of about 125 buildings in the downtown area.

If National Register approval is received, historic tax credits could be available for building expansion, rehabilitation and new development.

Building owners in the designated area will be contacted to help volunteers with the intensive historical study of each building.

Mayor recognizes Le Mars Board of Education

(LE MARS)--Praise from the mayor of Le Mars is being given to the Le Mars Community School Board of Education.

Listen here

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Dick Kirchoff made his personal comments to the board last night before he proclaimed School Board Recognition Week May 8th through May 13th.

Listen here

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Mayor Kirchoff says he'll will make a proclamation later this week for the Gehlen Catholic School Board of Education.

In other business, the board approved a new contract with the Le Mars Education Association that includes a one-and-a-half percent pay increase for the next school year. The board action also authorized contracts to be issued which teachers have 21 days to sign.

The list of 160 graduates for the Class of 2011 was approved. Fees for the coming school year were set. The only changes involve a city bus fee increase due to fuel charges and a hot lunch fee increase of five cents which will meet new federal requirements.

County Attorney Coleman McAllister released written information about the conviction of 48-year-old Jose Amado Garrido.

Garrido was charged by the Sheriff's Office in March after a text-a-tip program providing information that Garrido was using someone else's identity to get a job at Sparboe Foods in Boyden.

A judge Monday sentenced Garrido to five years in prison, but suspended the sentence and placed him on probation for two years.

A detainer on his custody has been placed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportion proceedings. He'd been convicted of forgery in Sioux County in 2003. Garrido is being held in the Sioux County Jail.

Rolfe man wanted in woman's disappearance dies in Kansas

CARROLL, Iowa (AP) An Iowa police chief says a man sought as a witness in the disappearance of a Carroll woman has killed himself in Kansas.

Carroll Police Chief Jeff Cayler (KAY-luhr) said Tuesday that James Snovelle (SNOH'-vuhl), of Rolfe, shot himself as he was being chased by Kansas officers.

Cayler says his investigators knew Snovelle had some connection to Coffee County, Kan., so asked authorities there to watch for him. Cayler says Kansas officers found Snovelle at a rural Coffee County property on Monday evening.

He took off on foot but was soon spotted crossing a stream. Cayler says Snovelle then pulled out a gun and fatally shot himself.

Cayler says Snovelle's suicide raises more concerns, but the disappearance of 50-year-old Dawn Allen last week is still being treated as a missing person's case.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Yankton mayor to serve again

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) David Knoff will serve another term as mayor of Yankton.

City commissioners held their traditional reorganization meeting on Monday, seating new members and electing one of their own to serve as mayor for the coming year.

The vote to give Knoff a second term was unanimous.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Iowa Democrat to introduce abortion measure

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A state senator says he will introduce legislation later this week designed to block a Council Bluffs clinic that would provide late-term abortions.

Iowa City Democrat Joe Bolkcom told reporters Tuesday he will introduce his measure in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which he heads. He says his bill would prevent Nebraska Dr. LeRoy Carhart from opening a clinic in Council Bluffs, but it also would allow abortions in order to protect the health of women.

Carhart announced plans for a Council Bluffs clinic after Nebraska approved a law largely outlawing late-term abortions.

The Iowa House also has approved a measure banning abortions after 20 weeks, but it's more restrictive and doesn't allow exceptions in cases of rape, incest or fetus abnormalities.

Republican Ron Paul opening Iowa campaign office

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) Republican presidential prospect Ron Paul is in Iowa to open a state campaign headquarters as he explores a second bid for the GOP's nomination.

The Texas congressman who sought the party's nod four years ago also plans to introduce key Iowa campaign staff at the Tuesday afternoon event. Those workers will begin organizing the state for Paul in advance of the state GOP's caucuses.

Paul announced in Des Moines two weeks ago he was forming a campaign exploratory committee for 2012. The caucuses are scheduled to begin the 2012 Republican nominating campaign in February.

Paul finished fifth in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, and he has pledged a better-funded and more aggressive campaign in Iowa. Last week, Paul reported raising more than $1 million through an on-line fundraising drive.

A news release from the office of the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa says Darrin Meirick (MEHR'-ihk) pleaded guilty to two counts. Meirick admitted that on April 4 and Sept. 23 in 2008, he had at least 150 computer images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

At his sentencing on Monday, Meirick was ordered to serve 10 years of supervised release after he leaves prison.

Waterloo man held in apartment shooting

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) A 59-year-old Waterloo man was arrested after a shotgun was fired into a third-floor apartment.

Police say Larry Cody was in custody Tuesday morning. Officer say Cody faces several charges, including being a felon in possession of a firearm and of intimidation with a weapon.

Officers were sent early Tuesday to the Walnut Court Apartments, where witnesses say a man posing as a police officer was staring at a third-floor apartment.

The witnesses say the man used the shotgun to blow out a car tire, and then fired a blast upward through a window into the ceiling of the apartment.

No injuries were reported.

College suspends high school music program

DECORAH, Iowa (AP) A northeast Iowa college is suspending a summer music program for high school students as officials mull its future.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Luther College in Decorah is suspending Celebration Iowa, a showcase for Iowa's music students since 1983.

The man who oversees the program says higher operating costs, the state of the economy and philanthropic support prompted the review.

He says it has been the program's central funding source, though the program also received outside money from donors and cast members solicited sponsors.

Courteous crook robs Des Moines bank

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A man who was described as happy and singing walked up to a teller at a Des Moines bank and handed over an envelope with a note that said, ``I have a gun.''